Personal and small jobs
Photography agreement
The paper for a shoot, whether it is a wedding, a product, a portrait or a campaign. Its distinctive question is ownership: in most systems the photographer owns the copyright unless it is assigned, so the agreement decides whether the client is buying a licence to use the images or the rights themselves. Alongside that it deals with the date, the deliverables and turnaround, retouching, permission from the people photographed, and what the photographer may publish.
- In the catalogue
- Personal and small jobs
- Where it can live
- Any of the 184 governing laws
Who uses one
- Photographers and videographers working for clients.
- Couples, families and businesses commissioning a shoot.
- Agencies booking a photographer for a campaign or a product range.
What you are deciding
- The date, the location and how long the shoot runs
- What is delivered, in what form, and by when
- How much retouching is included
- Who owns the copyright, and what licence the client gets
- Where the client may use the images, and for how long
- Whether the photographer may publish the work
- Permissions from people appearing in the images
- The fee, the deposit and what happens on cancellation
Blanks you leave stay blank and wait in the room. Nothing is filled in from a guess.
The sections a draft usually has
- 1The parties and the shoot
- 2Date, location and timings
- 3Deliverables and turnaround
- 4Editing and retouching
- 5Copyright ownership
- 6Client licence and permitted use
- 7Portfolio and publication
- 8Releases from subjects
- 9Fee, deposit and cancellation
- 10Backup and archiving
A general outline, not a required one. What turns up in a draft follows what you described. A contract is written in the order a contract is read.
What people call it
The names this kind of paper goes by. They are here because people search for them. They also filter the catalogue. They are not a wordlist the door matches. At the composer you describe the deal in your own words instead.
- photography contract
- photography agreement
- photo shoot agreement
- videography contract
- wedding photography contract
- model release agreement
Questions people ask
- Who owns photographs by default?
- In most systems the photographer owns the copyright unless it has been assigned or the work falls into a specific category. Agreements of this kind decide whether the client is getting a licence or the ownership.
- What is a model release?
- Permission from a person appearing in an image for it to be used in stated ways. It is separate from the client agreement and is usually needed before commercial use.
- How long are files usually kept?
- Papers of this kind commonly name an archiving period after which files may be deleted, so the client knows when to take their own copy rather than assuming permanence.
General answers about the document. Not advice about your situation. Not written about any one country.
Where it lives
A contract names the legal system it is governed by. That is a separate decision from which paper it is. You pick it at the door, from any of the 184 units in Governing law, including England and Wales, Delaware, California and New York.
You do not start from this page. Describe the deal in one sentence at the door. Read the draft back in plain language, in the order a contract is read.
Start it at the door →Related kinds